Flying discs are known objects of entertainment and are pervasively popular objects of game-play and amusement. Manipulation of physical properties of the flying discs may confer desirable variances in flight patterns such as, directional bias, velocity, and distance/height.
For example, Forti, et al. (U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2006/0250735) describes a cylinder with a pointed forward edge that edge allowing for a predictable distance of flight.
Creating a gyrating flying disc has been problematic. As described by Forti et al., (U.S. Pat. No. 5,816,880), gyrating flight can be accomplished with a cylinder-like hollow body having a leading and training edge where the leading edge is heavily weighted. This design, however, is devoid of a circular disc center, and fails to achieve desirable lift and curvature of flight. Moreover, the gyration achieved is only on the vertical axis, which is not advantageous.
Other designs include a weight on the leading edge of the disc, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,590,518 to Ross. The weight, however, allows for a predetermined direction of flight. Because the leading edge is weighted, the disc effectively becomes a projectile. When launched, Ross' disc does not spin, but flies in the direction of the weighted leading edge. To facilitate launch, a separate launching device is provided. This design also includes a thickened center relative to edge, thereby diminishing the airfoil and lift achieved by the flying disc.
Still, other designs fail to achieve sustainable and predictable gyrating flight. As described in DE202005014916, a cavity within the disc holds sand, which when launched, disperses via the Coriolis Effect to the edge of the disc. Because the configurations of sand placement vary from throw to throw, a different flight pattern is achieved at each launch. This design also provides a hollow center, thus changing the dynamics of an airfoil achieved by a flying disc that is substantially uniform in thickness at its center.
A flying disc that consistently and yet preternaturally gyrates on both the vertical and horizontal axis is desired. A flying disc that gyrates and achieves flight in a spinning manner, launching from a point, and increasing in height before reaching an apex and descending is heretofore undescribed. Thus, there is a need for a flying disc that addresses the deficiencies of prior designs and provides a flying disc with an airfoil and weighted interior edge, which flies in a spinning motion with a reproducible gyrating motion from a launch, optionally reaching an apex before descent.